EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — The Willmar Stingers started off their first road trip of the season on a strong note, scoring four times in the first inning on the way to a 7-4 win over Eau Claire on Saturday night.

After a tough loss to the Express (2-3) on Friday at home, the Stingers (2-3) got the chance to get back on the winning track with the first of two games in Eau Claire. They did exactly that, grabbing the lead in the first inning and never looking back.

A night after the Express scored in the first inning, the Stingers repaid the favor with a four-run first, sending 10-men to the plate in the frame. Willmar needed just three hits in the inning to score the four runs, as Quincy McAfee (Pepperdine) led the first off with a single. McAfee stole second and went to third on a throwing error on the play, and Danny Pardo (Montevallo) followed with a walk to put runners on the corners.

Greg Lambert (Southern Illinois) helped bring the first run home when he reached on an error, and Travis Wacker (Oklahoma State) singled home the second run two batters later after Jack Schmidt walked. In his first game as a Stinger, designated hitter Kole Cottam (Kentucky) followed Wacker’s RBI single with one of his own, the first of three runs Cottam would drive in on the night. Brian Moore (St. John's River State) plated the fourth run with a sacrifice fly.

Ty Tice (Central Arkansas) made his first start of the season for the Stingers, and he ran with the early run support. Tice allowed single runs in the first, third and fourth innings, but he worked out of jams when he needed to and finished the night with nine strikeouts in five innings. That total was the most strikeouts for any Stingers pitcher so far this season.

With the lead at just one in the seventh inning, the Stingers broke loose for three more runs. Cottam came through again for Willmar, singling with the bases loaded to drive in a pair of runs and make it 6-3. Moore then increased the lead to four with an RBI fielder’s choice.

That outburst proved to be vital as Eau Claire’s Daulton Varsho would hit a lead-off homer in the bottom of the seventh inning. But the Express couldn’t get any closer the rest of the way, as Josh Mill (Cal State-Northridge) pitched well out of the bullpen in his first appearance of the season. Mill finished his night allowing just the one run on the home run, while he struck out five in four innings of relief to pick up the save.

The Stingers will go for the series sweep of Eau Claire at 5:05 p.m. on Sunday.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Ty Tice. CDI is your local medical imaging provider. It’s your choice where you go for medical imaging, for MRI, CT, mammograms and pain injections, choose CDI. Visit online at myCDI.com/CentralMN.

The 2016 season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.